1990 - USA - 135 minutes
Director - Alan Parker

Vocabulary:

(labor) union: an organization whose purpose is to represent workers in matters of pay and working conditions

projectionist: a person who operates a projector (the machine that shows movies in a movie theater)

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation): an agency of the U. S. government whose responsibility is to investigate federal (national) crimes

"Little Tokyo": a section of Los Angeles

Words you should already know from the WW II presentations; ask another student if you don't these words:

• internment camp
• Tule Lake
• Executive Order 9066
• "no no boys"
• unconstitutional

Read this carefully:

Come See the Paradise stars Dennis Quaid as Jack McGurn, a union organizer in the late 1930's, and Tamlyn Tomita as Lily, a Japanese-American woman living in Los Angeles with her family.

Jack falls in love with Lily after he moves to Los Angeles to get away from his troubles in New York, where his strong beliefs in justice and rights for workers get him into trouble. (He was burned when a fire was started by someone else in a theater where he placed a smoke bomb as part of his union activities.)

When Lily's family doesn't approve of Jack's and Lily's relationship and California laws don't allow them to marry, the two escape together to Seattle. They get married there and build a life together. However, Jack's efforts to help workers get him into more trouble. It's too much for Lily, who returns to her family in Los Angeles.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Jack returns to Los Angeles. The U. S. Government interns Lily, their daughter, and the rest of Lily's family in a camp in the desert. Jack struggles to reach his family and correct the situation.